Chapter Text
Shen yuan was REALLY done for now.
For the last few years he had begun reading proud immortal demon’s way and it quickly snowballed into a very ridiculous love-hate relationship with the novel. Yes, it was full of porn. Yes, it was riddled with plot holes. And yes, he had wasted hours, money and gotten into countless arguments about the endless, honestly boring, wives the protagonist had acquired. But it had BingGe!!
BingGe, protagonist of PIDW with a sad backstory, enduring harsh trials to reach the pinnacle of cultivation and winning the hearts of any woman along the way. He managed to check all the marks Shen Yuan had in terms of personality, story, charm and appearance, especially with all the official merch, art and even an official drama getting teased recently!
Despite the story becoming more and more porn driven as it progressed later on, Shen Yuan had become infatuated with this protagonist.
He had already become a prominent member on online forums, whenever the username “PeerlessCucumber” appeared, others knew that long filled rants on the world building and plot would drown the comments.
Many just skimped over his messages, others poked fun at how he always slandered the many nameless wives of BingGe and how nonsensical many of these relationships seemed yet never calling out any of the protagonist’s flaws. Joking that at that point PeerlessCucumber would rather become the protagonist’s only wife. And that couldn't be further from the truth!
Except… from the fact that Shen Yuan had started running a sort of oshi/yume account. Well, it wasn't really a yume account! Owning huge amounts of merch of the protagonist; figures, charms, plushies, acrylic stands, special novel editions, you name it; he just felt that it was such a shame that he had no one to appreciate his collection, so he took up to posting on the internet.
At first it started with awkward selfies posed with his plushies in very touristy locations, cute but shaky and anxious pictures! As if afraid he'd be caught. It even had a cringy online handle, YuaBing, but forgive him! He wasn't the best at coming up with creative usernames and he surely didn't want someone to connect the dots with his other accounts.
Time went on, his in-fandom popularity rose and he stopped posting selfies with his merch and began to solely focus on BingGe. Whenever a new collab, fan convention or even a themed hotel room sprung up, he’d have new photos to upload. Even taking his tiny acrylic stands on “dates” at seemingly expensive restaurants and trips. It was.. honestly impressive to see how much money one could spend on a fictional character but, whatever makes people happy.
He had acquired a few online friends who shared his interest with this novel, albeit with different characters. Most posting art, cosplays or offering more in depth discussions on the side characters.
Now that Shen Yuan was living a double life (or would it be triple-life??? He surely couldn’t let anyone he knew in real life know about his online antics.) he was more than cautious to make sure no one could know the connection between these accounts. It would be the end of him if anyone realized that The PeerlessCucumber was running a self-shipping account. Damn the jokes that would ensue!
That was until one of AirplaneShootingTowardsTheSky’s giant chapter updates, a very sleep deprived, nonstop-study brain fogged Shen Yuan went on another giant rant to blow steam. Finger prints burning off from the touch of an overheating laptop. Not even 10 minutes later he received a reply linking him to another forum post asking him “have you seen this yet? LOLOLOL.”
In this link was a long thread titled “I think i just found PeerlessCucumber’s twitter account” followed by screenshots and captions calling out all of the “coincidences” between these two accounts. Lists upon lists mentioning how this “YuaBing” and “PeerlessCucumber” would always post about the newest merch at around the same times, upload reviews in similar fashion and show up to conventions for PIDW all over china and singapore. Although both things were popular to do among fans once PIDW garnered lots of attention all around Asia and the personalities differed a lot from the accounts, there was still one extremely damning piece of evidence. His at-home set up. Fuck! Why didn't he think about that!
Since moving into an entirely new country he didn't have the luxury to dedicate a separate space for his merch. His apartment was small but comfortable, he wasn’t necessarily worried as long as he had his necessities. So whenever he posted merch reviews on forums, it was inevitable to see parts of his desk or even other pieces of his merch. What he didn’t expect was for someone to take notice and make a collage of all the similarities!
Post-it notes stuck on a monitor reminding him to take medications, textbooks on the corners of photos, even the entire bookshelves and stands were the same! The post ended with the comment “guess the jokes about PeerlessCucumber wanting to be BingGe’s only wife really were true!”
Yea, he was for sure done for.
With upcoming exams and homework due a few hours from now, Shen Yuan decided his best course of action was to just close his laptop and pretend this didn't happen.
This actually proved to help a bit, his mind too occupied with endless homework and mock tests to even think about what was happening online right about now. But it didn't last long, 3 days into this electronic cleanse he was bombarded with text messages from his online friends, wondering why he hadn't been uploading as usual.
3littlebells: Yuan!!
3littlebells: Yuan!!!!!!
3littlebells: i heard some of the rumors…
3littlebells: YuaBing!! Answer or ill think you’re dead!!
After being spammed for a while he finally thought to respond:
YuaBing: ah, im fine! I've mostly been away due to finals season approaching.
A complete lie, he thought. Biting his lip, he contemplated sending another message.
YuaBing: and about those posts… im not sure how to put it but it really is true
3littlebells: …
3littlebells: omg
3littlebells: wait ok at first i thought that Cucumber guy was just a dick but looking back at it you two are so similar
YuaBing: ?
3littlebells: i mean, yea he’s always dragging that novel down but the way he talks about BingGe? Who else could it be but you
With that, Shen Yuan thought maybe staying away from the internet for a while longer wasn't so bad.